A Story of Two Isles, Part 2

If you didn´t read my first post of the series, you won´t know what this is about, I strongly encourage you to do it:

https://steemit.com/history/@wolfenlord/a-story-of-two-isles

So, where were we again? Oh yes, the year was 1770 AD and Britain was about to decide if they should fight out a full-scale war with Spain and France over the islands. However, they had just finished a war against France which had left them victorious but with a debilitated armada. So they instead unleashed another type of dog of war: international lawyers and diplomats. They debated endlessly about which nation posessed the statu quo and real ownership rights and while all of this happened, a secret agreement was reached by the diplomats. I guess you know by now that each time a “secret agreement” is made by diplomats to save face, a nation comes out of the playground crying. A secret clause, private and unofficial was made, according to historians on both sides, which was communicated to the spanish ambassadors by officials directly related to the british King(like North and Rocheford).

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been the 1700´s versión of Terminator saying “I´ll be back!”. Also, the british faced considerable heat from the parlamentary opposition about their accorded retreat, and collectively felt glad that Facebook did not exist at that time. After that evacuation, there weren´t any more settlement attempts by the english and the sovereignty was attributed to the spanish in full. Spain administered the islands as a dependency of the “Virreinato del Rio de la Plata”(an official annex territory to the one that would be known later as Argentina). The settlement was blooming, and the island population consisted of officers, soldiers and prisoners. Yes, there was a prison installed in 1780 there, the best business of all: send misfits and disidents to the sterile islands with no booze. In that time there were no important developments, save for the Nootka Sound(San Lorenzo) conventions in which Spain was recognized as owner of the coasts and islands of all the spanish colonies in south america, but apparently forgot to leave a T.E.G. board game map because it was not respected afterwards. I can´t translate literally an argentine joke, but I can tell you what it means: look here: T.E.G. wikipedia page

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After the July 9th, 1816, baby Argentina showed the world that it was ready to leave the cradle by declaring its Independence, so logically, the islands´ spanish governor, Gerardo Bordas, officially recognized argentine sovereignty over the islands… by demanding paychecks for all the years that spanish crown money didn´t flow into the islands. Admittedly, we were not very nice back then so we sent a fully fledged corsair to the islands to reclaim their unconditional “friendship”. David Hewett was an american corsair(a reformed pirate working for a government), nationalized argentinian, who had a tough reputation and probably a +20 bonus on bar fighting, he commanded an argentinian frigate, named Heroine(which totally had nothing to do with his love for felonies. The “Friendship Treaty” was signed with the new government, and a new economy for the islands was planned, base on building prisons, a lot more prisons, and even more prisons!

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But then a prominent argentinian with french parents, Luis Vernet, and his economic partner, Jorge Pacheco, convinced the new government that the islands could be so much more, so in 1826 a permanent argentinian settlement was established on the ruins of Port Saint-Louis and renamed it creatively as “Puerto Luis”(seems that everything was ok with that guy Louis, but we disliked his sainthood enough to remove it from the name), and the islands started slowly building an economy on farming, fishing and incipient cattle raising. Also, in 1830 the first babies on the islands were born, which curiously most of them resembled the milkman. Due to the great depredation fishermen from various nations imposed in the seal colonies near the islands, one of the first laws Vernet signed was to ban the hunt of this animals. Shortly thereafter, three fishing boats(the Harriet, the Breakwater and the Superior) were retained by argentine authorities on the islands for hunting seal on their coasts.

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Two of them were released, but the Harriet, the worst ofender, was sent to Buenos Aires, along with the documents necessary for a trial. Vernet himself and his family escorted the ship, which arrived on 1831. United States was a young nation, but since its Independence on July 4th, 1776(for reference, consult any movie about the july 4th fireworks) had grown much and could now be considered a teenager, and like all teenagers, its official protest was “we recognize no sovereignty and can fish and hunt wherever we see fit”. So the United States consul George W. Slacum, being no slacker, demanded the release of the Harriet and its captain, the annulment of the trial and the surrender of Vernet to be prosecuted for piracy, or else it would attack the argentinian settlement on the islands.

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Will this result in a war between the United States and Argentina? Stay tuned for our next episode! (I know, I´ve been teasing you with war since the first post, but just wait for the next one, or go to wikipedia and actually consult history, your choice ;) ).